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[av_heading heading=’ Bayan-Negros: Martial law prone to abuses’ tag=’h3′ style=’blockquote modern-quote’ size=” subheading_active=’subheading_below’ subheading_size=’15’ padding=’10’ color=” custom_font=”]
BY MAE SINGUAY
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INSThursday, May 25, 2017
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BACOLOD City – The Islamic State-linked Maute group operating in Marawi City must be stopped, according to the Bagong Alyansang Makabayan (Bayan) Negros.
The reported “burning of civilian facilities” must be condemned, and President Rodrigo Duterte was “right to cut short his trip (to Russia) and return to Manila to oversee the resolution of the crisis,” it said.
But Bayan-Negros was against the declaration of martial law in the entire Mindanao. The martial rule “is open to all sorts of abuse by state security forces notorious for human rights violations,” it said in a statement Secretary-General Christian Tuayon emailed to Panay News.
Tuayon said they joined a “nationally coordinated indignation protest” against the martial law.
Organization members who gathered at the Fountain of Justice fronting the old city hall on Wednesday expressed fear that Duterte’s pronouncement will result in “widespread human rights violations.”
“It is a blanket endorsement of so many abuses arising from warrantless arrests, searches and seizures, and the filing of trumped-up charges,” the group said. “It threatens to unleash more violence against the people.”
Bayan-Negros also worries that martial law will be used against “various other armed conflicts and struggles not related to” terrorist groups.
“How will that sit with the peace negotiations Duterte is undertaking with the NDFP (National Democratic Front of the Philippines), MILF (Moro Islamic Liberation Front) and MNLF (Moro National Liberation Front)?” it said.
That the Armed Forces claimed to have the situation in Marawi City “under control … makes the basis of the martial law … even more questionable or suspect,” said Bayan-Negros.
Various armed conflicts in Mindanao were rooted in decades-old problems of poverty, inequality, discrimination, and violations of the right to self-determination, it said. “These will ultimately require more than just a military solution. Martial law is not the answer.”
“We express our solidarity with the people of Marawi who have been witnesses to and victims of the attacks,” said the group. “We call for peace and justice in Mindanao by addressing the roots of the armed conflict.”/PN
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